Beaver Creek

Beaver Creek Ski Resort in Avon, Colorado is one of my favorite places to vacation. I adore the white powdery snow as it makes for some of the best snowboarding that I have experienced to date. There is a big beautiful village with shops, restaurants, and tons of people. The food on the mountain is great and one can usually find more than one option to suit their taste buds. The snow runs range in difficulty between simple and calm to complex and feverish. Snow lifts can be seen everywhere allowing for easy, though sometimes tense, access to the slopes.

Getting on and off of the lift is always a little intimidating for new comers and even those of us who are only able to get out in the snow once a year. I typically do fine, but I always expect the worst. It is as if I was going to forget how to properly navigate this machinery each year. Once on the lift, I get a chance to really take in all of the majestic sights of the mountain. It is pretty amazing to come to the top of a ridge and see the almost mirror like reflection of the sun’s rays in the snow. I breathe in the chilled mountain air and can smell the huge pine trees that litter the landscape. The constant hum and vibration of the lift chair resonate in my bones as I ascend the mountain. The frozen metal bench that I am perched upon acts as an anesthetic to my extremities. Luckily, I have the heavens and the beautiful mountain vistas before me to capture both, my attention and my gaze. I can see others making their way down the mountain. Some are on skis, some are on snowboards, and others are on their back (Ouch!). I look at my stepfather and ask, “Are we taking the blue diamond or the black diamond this time?” I knew he was going to pick the black diamond, but I figured I would ask.

He said, “Well, I am going on the black diamond are you sure you can handle it?” I laughed, since it was the third time we have made this particular run today. All I can hear other than the person next to me is the wind. As I arrive at the top of the mountain, I see the little building that houses the snow lift operator. The lift’s audible sound and the clambering of people dramatically increase as I get closer to the building. Once in position to dismount the lift, I wait until it is my chair’s turn and slide off of the lift chair and down a little hill.

Once we regroup to the side and out of the way of others coming off of the snow lift, I sit down on the snow to secure my board. The sun is so bright at this altitude that I have to squint my eyes to see what I am doing. First, I secure my right boot into its binding on the board and then my left. Then I ratchet them both down real tight to ensure proper control over my board. I push myself up on to my feet before my stepfather and I begin to descend the mountain. The wind picks up as I gain speed. I am surrounded by the white noise of the wind and my board meeting the snow. A constant “Shhhhh” is heard as I pick up even more speed. I see a patch of moguls up ahead. I choose to save my knees and go around them. It cost me some speed, but I am not in a race. Just beyond the moguls is a steep drop off. In order to maintain control and manage my speed I stick with the textbook side-to-side motion. The wind is really beginning to wear on my cheeks and my ears as I have no feeling left in them. I am so enthralled in the task at hand that the minor discomfort that this causes is easily forgotten. Once near the bottom third of the drop, I turn my board straight down the mountain and go as fast as I can. It is amazing the feeling of freedom that this gives you. It is the same exhilaration that I imagine flying would invoke. I see a small jump and I hit it at full speed and with a slight pump of my legs, I am airborne. The split second of euphoria as I feel my body leave the earth and glide through the air is surreal. I feel a sense of weightlessness, as if defying gravity. I stick the landing and an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment washes over me. I continue down the mountain and catch up with my stepfather. Ahead we see some of the flat spots of the run, so we make sure to carry a great deal of speed going into it. This ensures that we will not be stuck walking our equipment across the snow as opposed to riding it. At the first rest stop on this side of the mountain, we take a break to freshen up and visit with some of my relatives that braved the lift ride up.

The rest stop is a big log cabin with a full cafeteria and also acts as a central connection for some of the other runs. This allows us to meet up with my mother and cousins before continuing the rest of the way down the mountain. Not to mention, it is a great place to warm up with a cup of hot cider and contemplate which run to take from there. After resting a while, my stepfather and I decide to head back down the mountain to finish for the day. Once at the bottom, I feel a sense of accomplishment, knowing that it takes a lot of physical and mental strength to participate in the sport I love.

Beaver Creek is a fantastic resort, and although I may find one that surpasses it, I haven’t found one yet. On every given run down the slope of a mountain, one can embrace a feeling of freedom and accomplishment. It is unlike anything that I have experienced to date. I learned on the icy mountains of the east, so the powder that I experienced in the west was an extra special treat. I find it ironic that when I lived in the North and had to deal with snow on a daily basis, I could not wait to leave it. But now, I found a new love for snow and actually pay to vacation in it.

"Where am I From?" (Revised)

“Where am I from?” This is a difficult question, since I have lived in several places for an extended period of time. I was born on Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana. While I was still a baby, my parents moved to South Bend, Indiana. They separated a couple of years later and I stayed in Indiana with my father. At the age of nine, I moved to Georgia to live with my mother and stayed there until the present. All of this relocating has made it difficult for me to identify myself with a given location.

Since I did not live in Louisiana for very long, I was too young to generate an opinion of the city or state. I also do not know whether I share any of the people’s characteristics or behaviors. These points make it difficult to consider Louisiana as the place that I am from, which is odd, since it is where I was born. The next state took up some of my formidable years, so I will be able to draw many more comparisons between myself and my next location.

South Bend, Indiana is known for a couple things. Most notably is it is known for being the home of the University of Notre Dame. Naturally, I am a big fan of the “Fighting Irish” football team. Notre Dame’s prestige and public image, served as a beacon of hope for the surrounding inhabitants of South Bend. Another lesser known truth of South Bend is that it is home of the Merchants National Bank, which is one of the banks that John Dillinger robbed in the early 1930’s. I do find that I share some similar characteristics to the people of Northern Indiana. I find that I am much more comfortable in cold weather, which would make sense given the longer winters I experienced in South Bend as a child. This also makes Georgia summers a nightmare. South Bend has warm summers, but they are not as humid. I also think that these extended winters may have contributed to my “Golden Tan”, or lack thereof. My pale skin color appears to be a characteristic too as many of the white folks in this region share the same ultra-white, almost translucent complexion.

Around 9 years old, I moved to Marietta, Georgia. Everything in Marietta was so much nicer and cleaner than anything I experienced in South Bend. I noticed that the weather was much warmer and the winters were almost snow free. I went through middle school and high school in Marietta, so it became the place that I identified myself with the most. This is where I made the most friends and is also where I searched for and found my own individuality. I have been told by many Southerners that I sound like a northerner. This is because I do not share their “draw” or accent, which is funny since I was born in the south and spent the majority of my life in the south.

I am still unsure of where I am from. I guess it depends on whether one is referring to where someone is born or where someone mostly identifies with. If asked, where I am from, my answer would still be that I was born in Louisiana, but I am from Georgia. I made this decision knowing that I share more physical characteristics with the people of Indiana, but it is the friends and interactions of Georgia that I identify myself with the most.

Gaming Nostalgia

I have been a big fan of video games for as long as I can remember. It is definitely my favorite past time. My first experience with video games was the Commodore 64 home computer. Most of the games were pretty simple and lacked the technological strength that today’s gaming consoles and computers have. The home computers in that era were nothing like what we see today. Microsoft Windows was not even invented yet. Programs were initialized by the use of MS-DOS. Plus, Commodore’s had a built in cartridge peripheral to allow the use of game cartridges, which is pretty uncommon for home computers today. Though the Commodore 64 was fun, it lacked the immersion that later gaming systems adopted. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is a shining example of newly adopted immersion.

One of the most memorable games that I played was Super Mario Brothers, which is a side-scrolling action plat former. The level design was unlike anything that the gaming industry had seen to date. The level of exploration and reward were second-to-none. I remember scouring the levels for new hidden levels and various other goodies, which was quite addictive. Not to mention, it made for some great bragging rights amongst my friends. I remember when I first found the “warp zones” on level 1-2 and that I was the first of my friends to find it. Unfortunately, I also found out that my older brother already found it and that he also found one on level 4-2.

The most fun I had in my youth involved my older brother and I doing laps on the massively popular kart racer, Mario Kart. This game made its debut on Super NES, which was the predecessor to the NES. The exhilaration, comradery, and enjoyment that I experienced while playing this game have seldom been matched. The feeling of accomplishment when I was able to spin my brother out, as infrequent as it may have been, was one of the things that kept me coming back for more. Still to this day, I find it hard to re-create the special moments that the older NES and SNES games gave me in my childhood.

Games have changed allot over the years. So much, that the industry has lost sight of the fundamentals that made up these games so appealing. I still play and enjoy the games of today, but I fear that I will never relive those feelings that so many others and I experienced back then. Perhaps it is not just video games or video game developers that have changed over the years. Would I still give Super Mario Bros. a play in today’s market? Unfortunately, I probably would not.

Jack Lemon: Reloaded

My one year old puppy is named Jack Lemon. Since my last name is Lemon, I thought that it would be cute to name him Jack. I like how his name is funny and at the same time I get to pay homage to the late, great actor, Jack Lemmon. After all, my puppy is quite a character. One of the great things about pets is that they provide unconditional love.

I love my puppy, but every once in a while I may have a bad day or I am busy with homework and I can tell that he is depressed. Usually, I will try to take a minute to play with him, so that he feels better, but there are days that I just cannot make the time. In these instances, Jack just lays on the futon behind me and stares at me with his sad, soulful eyes. Another common occurrence is when scheduling has not provided me or Lauisa (my wife) the time to stop by the house to let him out of his cage. He will give Lauisa and me an evil look and basically ignore us for a period of time. In both of these examples, Jack’s demeanor can be changed by showing him a little love. Once his tail starts wagging, he will stay in a pleasant mood for the rest of the night. Even though Jack gets upset with us from time to time, he always loves us in the end. Another great thing about Jack is the way he makes me feel as if I am the center of his universe.

The reaction that I receive from Jack when I come home from work and school every day is priceless. He demonstrates pure excitement and further embellishes on it with what I like to call, ‘the full-body wag’. ‘The full-body wag’ is when he does not stop with just a mere wiggle of his tail. His entire body begins to move from side to side. It gives me the feeling that I always brighten his day. I wonder if Jack realizes how much he brightens my day as well, since he always knows how to put a smile on my face.

Jack has become a great friend and an important part of our family. Now that he is a part of our life, I cannot fathom this life without him. I know that he will not last forever, but the impression he has made on myself and my family, will be long-lasting.